Four Poems at Poets for Science

 I have four poems up now at Jane Hirshfield's Poets for Science Global Gallery. Tons of science-related poems over there. Check them out.

Here are mine:

Radium Girls, first published in The Westchester Review

Darwin's Conjecture, first published in The Threepenny Review

Mendeleev's Mandala, the title poem of my second book

Lagrange's Problem, first published in Diagram, and included in my first book, The Insomniac's Weather Report

I'm hoping to have a few more, once I've checked on the rights, so if interested, stay tuned. 

Hybrids Highlighted

I've been largely sub-invested in this blog since I started my masters course a year and a half ago, and further uninvested during my past month of traveling. Unfortunately, while my studying semester goes into its last busy month and my next teaching semester concurrently begins, I don't anticipate the circumstances improving.

However, may I suggest some reading that is worthy of your time, by an essayist I envy, on the timely topic of hybrids. Find Lia Purpura's "Why Some Hybrids Work and Others Don't" at the latest issue of Diagram, and enjoy observations such as "in a satyr, the wild part stays wild, the cultivated part stays cultivated. Satyrs are complicated but consistent."

Essay Advent Calendar

It's December 2nd here in Japan, but I think it's still December 1st in the US, where most of my readers are, so I'm only a bit late on this:

An advent calendar by Essay Daily. Last year Ander Monson did an advent calendar, and this year Essay Daily, which is not really daily as they themselves admit and which is edited by Monson, is keeping up the tradition.

Since the December 1st entry isn't up yet, I don't feel too bad about being late with the news myself. Keep an eye on that link and enjoy!

UPDATE: There is now a post for Dec 1st at Essay Daily. Not sure if it counts in the advent count down or not, but here it is.

And it looks like Diagram, also edited by Monson, has an advent calendar this year too! The first entry is a schematic, one of the features of Diagram that makes it singular. (If you are unfamiliar with Diagram, they publish poetry and stories and reviews and what they call text, in addition to unearthing schematics.)

A Deck of Diagrams

I'm a big fan of Diagram, the online journal celebrating its tenth anniversary (in journal years, that's impressive!) with an anthology that takes the form of a deck of poker cards. Read here about how 10 of Diagrams has (as you might expect) the kinds of schematics which the journal is so known for as well as contributions from writers such as Jenny Boully (one of my faves), John D'Agata, Albert Goldbarth, Ben Marcus, Lia Purpura, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Mark Yakich, Charles Wu, and Diagram editor Ander Monson.

Visit the website to see a few examples of playing cards, which are fully functional as, well, playing cards.

Enjoy!

Essay in the Wrong Season

Reading Jenny Boully's "A Short Essay on Christmas" in Diagram's all-essay issue, I was reminded that I want to buy her book, the one that I don't have. Often I tell myself that when I get some cash for spending on books, I will buy her book. And then I buy someone else's book because I have almost all of hers, and I don't have anything of someone else's, and I think, "Next time, I really am going to buy the last Jenny Boully book." That is what I am saying to myself now, having just read her essay.

Diagram This

Posting yesterday's schematic reminded me of one of my favorite online literary journals, Diagram, edited by the truly original Ander Monson. Not only does Diagram feature cutting-edge writing, it also has a section entitled "Schematics" in every issue, in which you can find random charts, tables and pictures, like this one from Issue 10.5, called SPECTRAL TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN CHEEK AND OF CLEAR AND COLORED GLASSES (Matthew Luckiesh, Applications of Germicidal, Erythemal, and Infrared Energy, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1946):



The human cheek? Really?


Or this one, ANNUAL FLUCTUATIONS IN A POPULATION OF MALLARD DUCK
(J. D. Macdonald, Derek Goodwin, and Helmut E. Adler, Curiosities of Bird Life, Castle Books, 1962), from Issue 5.5.

If it pleases you to see just about everything under the sun represented visually (or in an attempted visual representation), if you are as fond of graphs and tables as I am, check out this online magazine. Oh, and don't forget to read the experimental writing Diagram features too.